Effect of Heat Treating on Precipitate Phases in NiTiHf

Recently, NiTiHf-based HTSMAs have been shown to exhibit unique precipitation and mechanical behavior. In this study, a rolled plate of NiTiHf HTSMA was homogenized and heat treated at various times and temperatures and characterized using a barrage of analytical techniques including high-energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction (SR-XRD). Neither homogenization nor any of heat treatments studied significantly affect the austenitic or martensitic transformation temperatures. H-phase was observed to precipitate at heat treating times below 30 minutes and then to subsequently dissolve away for times of 30 minutes and above. The presence of H-phase dramatically increases the material strength by almost a factor of 2, Lastly, an over-aging effect occurs with increasing time due to the disappearance of the H-phase.Copyright © 2015 by ASME